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Las Vegas Raiders superstar wide receiver Davante Adams arguably hasn’t been used to the best of his abilities the past two seasons, but a new report suggests he could potentially be on the move via a trade at some point prior to the deadline.
According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Raiders are “growing open to the idea of trading” Adams and have “begun reaching out to teams to gauge interest” in the six-time Pro Bowler and three-time First Team All-Pro.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported on Tuesday that Adams has told the Raiders that he prefers to play elsewhere, though a deal is not “imminent.”
Should the Raiders ultimately decide to move on from the 31-year-old star, here is a look at three possible landing spots that could lead to Adams’ fantasy football value spiking.
There is perhaps no team in the NFL currently with a bigger need at wide receiver than the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chiefs managed to overcome their wideout deficiencies last season by winning their second consecutive Super Bowl, but improving at that spot was clearly a focus during the offseason.
Kansas City selected speedster Xavier Worthy in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft and also signed another speedy receiver in Hollywood Brown in free agency.
Brown got injured during the preseason, though, and is expected to miss the entire 2024 campaign due to a shoulder ailment. On top of that, No. 1 wide receiver Rashee Rice suffered a knee injury during Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter (h/t ESPN’s Adam Teicher) reported that while the extent of Rice’s injury remains unclear, it was initially feared that he tore his ACL.
With the Chiefs potentially losing their top two receivers for the rest of the season and tight end Travis Kelce off to a slow start, quarterback Patrick Mahomes would benefit in a big way from Adams, who has posted four consecutive seasons with at least 100 receptions and 1,000 receiving yards.
Prior to his injury, Rice was one of the best receivers in fantasy, as he caught 24 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns in three games.
A receiver of Adams’ caliber would have a chance to put up similar numbers with Mahomes throwing him the ball.
The main questions for the Chiefs as it relates to Adams is whether they can afford to take on his $28 million per year salary and whether the Raiders would trade him to a divisional rival.
Every team in the AFC is looking to chase down the Chiefs, and no team has fallen just short against them in the playoffs as many times as the Buffalo Bills in recent years.
Buffalo has lost to Kansas City in the playoffs in three of the past four years, oftentimes spoiling great efforts from Josh Allen, who is arguably the best quarterback in the NFL aside from Mahomes.
Allen had a true No. 1 receiver on all of those occasions in the form of Stefon Diggs, but after Diggs struggled mightily during the second half of last season, the Bills traded him to the Houston Texans.
Buffalo selected wide receiver Keon Coleman with the top pick in the second round of the NFL draft and signed Curtis Samuel in free agency, but they haven’t yet been able to replace the level of production Diggs brought to the table.
The Bills are off to a successful 3-1 start despite that, but they are coming off a 35-10 blowout loss at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens in Week 4, and one of the talking points coming out of the game was the inability of Allen’s pass-catchers to get open quickly so he could beat the blitz.
Adams would help immensely in that regard and he would open things up for everyone else in the Buffalo offense, including wide receiver Khalil Shakir, Coleman, Samuel, tight end Dalton Kincaid and running back James Cook.
Diggs had over 100 catches and 1,100 receiving yards in each of his four seasons in Buffalo, and there is no reason to think Adams would produce anything less.
Adams’ best season in Las Vegas so far came with his college quarterback throwing him the ball, as he combined with Derek Carr in 2022 to rack up 1,516 yards and 14 touchdowns.
That production dipped significantly last season with Jimmy Garoppolo, Brian Hoyer and Aidan O’Connell as his quarterbacks to the tune of 1,144 yards and eight touchdowns.
Familiarity is a proven commodity for Adams, and that means he could be back to an elite level of production with his longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback in Aaron Rodgers throwing him the ball.
With Rodgers as his quarterback in Green Bay, Adams had five seasons with double-digit touchdown catches, including a career-high 18 in 2020. He also had 669 catches for 8,121 yards and 73 touchdowns in total in 116 games as a Packer.
Shortly after Adams moved on to the Raiders, the Packers traded Rodgers to the New York Jets, and he has had mixed results so far this season.
Rodgers’ numbers look solid on the surface, as he is completing 64.1 percent of his passes for 849 yards, five touchdowns and one interception, but the Jets are just 2-2 after scoring only nine points in a loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 4.
Jets No. 1 receiver Garrett Wilson has yet to build an ideal rapport with Rodgers, as another former Packers wideout in Allen Lazard leads the team with 206 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns.
Adams would give Rodgers another familiar target and perhaps open things up for Wilson since opposing defenses would have to split their attention.
While trading for Adams would fit the Jets’ win-now timeline, it remains to be seen if they would make that type of big move at receiver since they already have Wilson, Lazard and Mike Williams at the position.